# Design of Human-Inspired Feet to Enhance the Performance of the Humanoid Robot Mithra

## TL;DR

This paper describes a human-inspired foot design for the Mithra humanoid robot to improve performance and balance.

## Contribution

A novel optimization framework was developed to design a compliant, low-cost foot with human-like characteristics.

## Key findings

- The optimized foot outperformed a rigid baseline in mimicking human foot behavior.
- The framework is applicable to prostheses and exoskeletons, not just humanoids.
- Dynamic finite element analysis and benchtop experiments validated the design.

## Abstract

This paper presents the foot design for humanoid robot Mithra, with the goal of biomimetically improving impact behavior, natural power cycling throughout the gait cycle, and balance. For this purpose, an optimization framework was built which evaluates the human-inspired objectives using a dynamic finite element analysis validated by benchtop experiments. Using this framework and through several concept design iterations, a low-cost, compliant foot was optimized, designed, and fabricated. The analyses showed that the optimized foot significantly outperformed the baseline rigid foot in approaching the characteristics of human feet. The proposed framework is not limited to humanoids and can also be applied to the foot design for lower-limb prostheses and exoskeletons.